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The Grave's a Fine and Private Place: A Flavia de Luce Novel

Review

Flavia de Luce and her older sisters, Daphne and Ophelia, are devastated by the sudden loss of their father. He has, in his vague manner, held his warring daughters together at Buckshaw, the ancient and decaying mansion towering over their small village. Upon his demise, their tyrannical Aunt Felicity has swooped down from London to sort them all out.

Auntie declares that the mansion (which is willed exclusively to Flavia) shall be sold and the two elder sisters dispatched --- Ophelia in marriage to her fiancé, Daphne to read English at Oxford. Eleven-year-old Flavia shall return to London to live with her and her despised cousin, Undine. Dogger, their father’s faithful valet, chauffeur and companion --- the quintessential “Jeeves” to their father --- shall be pensioned off along with Mrs. Mullet, who had run the household after the mysterious disappearance of their mother when the girls were babies.

"A whole new chapter of Flavia’s life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime?"

Dogger decides that the period of mourning should come to an end and arranges a holiday to get away from Aunt Felicity’s invasion. We find Dogger and the girls languorously punting down the river toward Volesthorpe, a quaint English village straight from the pages of PICTURESQUE ENGLAND to attend an annual festival. An unimpressed Flavia daydreams of how to do herself in. Life as she knows it is over. Since poisons are her forte, she contemplates the methods that will be quickest, and least painful and messy, as she trails her fingers in the water.

Suddenly, a dark shape under the surface interrupts her reverie as her hand connects with what she thinks might be a large fish. It’s a body…a human body! Her heart leaps in joy. Nothing can bring her back to the present like a mystery to be solved. Could she be lucky enough for it to be a murder? Thoughts of her own demise vanish like vapor on a breeze.

With no laboratory in the attic of the Buckshaw Mansion to rely on, Flavia enlists Dogger’s seemingly endless knowledge of physics and ingenious tinkering with items at hand to outsmart the local constabulary who treat the victim’s death as an accidental drowning. Flavia, our irrepressible, precocious and indefatigable young sleuth, will not give up the hunt. Not only does she seek the truth of how he died, she also tries to determine who killed him and why.

Meanwhile, we are treated to some of the most entertaining characters we’ve encountered in prior Flavia de Luce novels. A traveling circus group of caravans brings actors, acrobats and charlatans on their annual trek through Volesthorpe. While the victim is a local villager, there seems to be a connection that Flavia must pursue.

Alan Bradley appears to have a vast store of historical, biblical, literary and chemical knowledge that could be overwhelming in lesser hands. His use of similes, Bible verses, Shakespearean and other literary figures, metaphors and chemical formulae could be just that, but we can forgive this overdose of references to enjoy the mere delight that Flavia brings to the page.

A whole new chapter of Flavia’s life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime?

Alan Bradley

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